The tales of an American family who moved to Switzerland & back again.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

A holiday weekend spent at the... hospital?

Unfortunately, yes. I spent this holiday weekend at the hospital.

First of all, it is a holiday weekend here. Everything was closed on Good Friday and will be closed again tomorrow for the Easter weekend. Don't get those perks in the states.

But let me back up a bit. I've been having some complications from trying to breastfeed for over a week. Bettina has been unable to latch so I was pumping. Two Thursdays ago I started to get some clogged ducts. No biggie, I had them with Marion. So I worked through it. But by the next day, I noticed my fever was not going away and it had gotten as high as 102.5 deg F, which was highly unusual for me.

So I called my midwife. She told me to keep doing what I was doing and to notify her if my fever went higher than that.

And so the next week was a roller coaster of high temps, then low temps, then attempts at breastfeeding, and pain. Finally, on Tuesday, we made a last ditch effort to breastfeed and it didn't work. I was in so much pain we decided to throw in the towel. Because my fever was down and feeling better, I decided to start the weaning process that day and extend the time between my pumping sessions.

Well, turns out that one thing my body is good at as far as giving birth goes is making milk. Just call me Mooghan. My body did not react well to this and we went right back into the fever, clogged duct cycle.

By Good Friday, my fever spiked to 104.2 deg F. I knew immediately that this probably meant that I had mastitis and called my midwife who told me to go straight to the hospital (most likely because my doctor's office was closed like everyone else due to the national holiday). I have impeccable timing.

We arrived at the hospital and they did a blood test to see if I had an infection. They said if it came back okay they'd send me home with tablets, if not I'd be admitted for IV treatments.

An hour later I was being admitted. I was told that the number in your blood that is supposed to be 5 was 200 in my case- definitely indicating an infection! So I was admitted for a third time during Betti's pregnancy, two times too many in my book.

Thankfully I was released today and was able to enjoy some of Easter with family and friends. However, I still have some things to look out for, am on a bunch of meds, and have to go to the doctor on Tuesday. Conditions of release, but I'll take it :-)

And did I mention that spring sprung here last week? Like I said, I have impeccable timing... but at least I can take comfort knowing that my body can do one thing right in the whole giving birth process!

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About Me

Relocated to Switzerland with my family, I enjoyed exploring life in a different country with my family for three years. We recently moved back to the US and are readjusting to life here while missing Switzerland and our friends there.